Category: Fair Trade

Looking for some green, earth friendly gifts for the women in your life, check out these great ideas.

Sterling Silver Stackable Rings: The artisans who hand make these sterling silver rings are paid fairly in the local context and are pre-paid 50% up front so they don’t need to use their own resources to purchase raw materials.

Organica’s Weekend Scarf: Hand-woven and made by women artisans using 100% non-violent, natural silk. The purchase of beautiful Tasar silk (indigenous to India) has far reaching impact on the environment and on livelihoods of the rural poor.

Bamboo 5 Piece Brush Set: This earth-friendly brush set is packed with the 4 high-quality brushes and, it shows respect for the planet. Bamboo handles, Synthetic taklon bristles that are 100% cruelty free, Sleek ferrule made from recycled aluminum and the cosmetic case is made from natural cotton and hemp.

Charmone shoes came about when a vegan friend mentioned that all vegan shoes were either ugly or poorly made and often times both. Which got them thinking about how to make vegan shoes and still be kind to the environment.

So the question is asked “How can you use synthetic materials and still call it eco-friendly?” Their answer “Well, believe it or not, the process of creating microfiber is less polluting to the environment than the process of tanning, factory farming and processing leather. In addition, the materials are free from harmful PVCs, using instead a light polyurethane coating which is gentler on the environment. We also incorporate sustainable practices throughout the production process, from using last boards made from 70% pre-consumer waste to using recycled materials in our boxes, business cards and other printed materials.”

Another great attribute that Charmone wants you to know about their company is that their shoes are made sweatshop free in Italy and Brazil, ensuring you enjoy quality craftsmanship without contributing to harsh working conditions.

Now these shoes are not at all on the cheap side but they are very pretty and have styles that you wont find anywhere else.

Yesterday my husband sent me a link to this website, better world shopper and was intrigued by the rankings part of the site. You can choose through a list of products and it will rank the best to worst, giving them an A through F rating. How they come to these ratings is by:

step.one – Data is collected over the past 20 years from a wide range of nonprofit sources on the social and environmental responsibility of more than 1000 companies.

step.two – The data is organized in a massive database that matches companies with their brands, assigns weights to each piece of data, and calculates an overall responsibility score.

step.three – Companies/brands are transferred to smaller, more specific charts based on product categories where each one is assigned a letter grade based on its overall responsibility relative to its competitors in the same product category.

step.four – Companies/brands are then transferred into easy-to-use report cards that allow people to quickly identify the most/least responsible choices when they are shopping online, at the supermarket, or in the mall.

The better world shopper is a site dedicated to providing people with reliable account of the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet and making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives. Keeping these key issues in mind, Human Rights, the Environment, Animal Protection, Community Involvement, and Social Justice.

The website is pack full of information but they also have a guide you can buy for $10 if you would like to use it while shopping or out and about.

If you are looking for organic products that you can trust and that come with the highest International food standards, try Ely Organics.

Ely Organics are made with only the finest organic cold pressed oils, essential oils, herb extracts and flower extracts; Ingredients so pure you could eat them. miessence® is currently one of a few skin care products on the planet that has submitted to, and complies with, the rigorous processing and labelling requirements for certified organic food products.

I know I can trust the organic integrity of Miessence products because of their third party independent organic certification. Third party certification is the highest level of verification there is for an organic product.

In 2005 Erin Ely became an independent Representative with ONE Group and started her home based business; Ely Organics.

Ely Organics offers a variety of products for Hair, Body, Oral, Baby & Mother, Cosmetics, Health Care, and Household. They have each product in full size, travel size and sample size.

I’m impressed with the fact that these products are so pure that you can actually eat them. I don’t want to be putting a bunch of toxic chemicals on my face that can cause long term health problems. And the fact that these products are safe around babies and animals is always a plus.

Who doesn’t want to dry off with supple organic cotton towels or slip into a chemical-free linen clad bed? If you are like me, you probably slip into a bed that has been chemically treated with some of the worlds most hazardous chemicals. Some of your most precious parts touch those sheets and towels you use everyday. So why wouldn’t you want to buy the best for your naked body to indulge in?

Eco-friendly alternatives made from organic cotton now abound, and rapidly renewable fibers such as bamboo have expanded their reach with more colors and designs than ever before and they’re no longer thin or coarse.

Here are some naked body worthy Eco Linens to consider:

Anna Sova Luxury Organic Linens: Milled in Switzerland with 100% US organic Pima cotton; our linens are finished in Italy with eco safe cotton bleaching, dyeing and finishing processes. As some of the world’s first high thread count organic cotton sheets, these linens help to reduce the amount of pesticides used in the US, and processing chemicals used in Italy.

Amenity Modern Organic bedding: All of their dyes are eco-friendly, non-toxic, water-based dyes and our organic bedding is made from 300 thread count cotton that’s been organically grown and organically processed.

Gaiam Thick and Thirsty Organic Cotton Towels: Tightly woven with premium long-staple 100% organic cotton, these 800-gram weight towels make every shower and bath a spa experience. Rich colors are created with low eco-impact dyes. Chlorine- and softener-free finishing preserves the purity and softness of the cotton.

The Company Stores Organic Cotton Jersey Bedding: Luxuriously soft and comfortable, their jersey knit bedding is safe for even sensitive, allergy-prone sleepers because it’s 100% certified organic cotton. The solid colors have been dyed and finished according to strict Oeko-Tex standards.

I was at Target picking up some much needed beauty supplies when I came across Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap for the first time. I saw that it was organic and I was checking the label and it read; Enjoy only 2 cosmetics, enough sleep & Dr. Bronner’s ‘Magic Soap’ to clean body-mind-soul-spirit instantly uniting one! I found this intriguing, that one soap could be used for your whole body and decided I would give it a try. It was just a small sample size so what did I have to loose?

I am now onto my second bottle, I love the product so much. Its smells wonderful and it leaves you feeling clean. Even the price is reasonable. I actually found some sample sizes on sale. They have the Pure Castile soaps in 8 different varieties. I have tried the peppermint and Lavender, both equally brilliant.

For those of you who would like to know what “Castile” means, In earlier centuries, an all-vegetable based soap was made in the Castile region of Spain from local olive oil. By the turn of this century, “Castile” had come to mean any vegetable oil-based soap, versus animal (tallow) fat-based soap.

On Dr. Bronner’s homepage they are are offering a 15% off in the month of February on all Rose Liquid & Bar Soap, All Lotions, Lip and Body Balms. So what are you waiting for? Go out and buy yourself some fabulous Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap.

What is Fair trade?Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. Taken from Wikipedia

Why is it important to buy Fair Trade Certified products? Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Living in Africa for a few years opened my eyes to how people outside of the US live and how the west sometimes takes advantage of their neediness. Young kids are almost always among the people who get taken advantage of, they work to help their family and usually end up getting paid only pennies a day. Fair Trade Certification gives the producer groups fair prices, fair labor conditions, help with community development, keeping it environmentally sustainable and using direct trade, working directly with the importer, eliminating the middlemen.

Are Fair trade Products safe? Some people worry about the Fair Trade products that they buy not being up to US standards, but Don’t be, because the producer groups have been inspected to see if they meet the strict International Fair Trade criteria. Once approved, most producers are re-inspected annually.

Where can you buy Fair Trade products? TransFair USA has suggestions as to Where to Buy Fair Trade Certified Products. Offering products like Coffee, Chocolate, Energy bars, Flowers, Wine and much more. Just look for the label!